Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 247 / Thursday, December 26, 2024 / Proposed Rules 104939 

1https://www.nc-sara.org/sara-policymodification-process. 

in which almost all states across the 

country participate for purposes of 

providing state authorization and 

reciprocity. NC–SARA first started using 

a policy modification process in January 

2023 to create a formal mechanism for 

addressing issues with state 

authorization and reciprocity.1 That 

process continues to be refined. As 

many commenters noted during the 

public hearings and negotiated 

rulemaking sessions on state 

authorization, allowing this policy 

modification process to continue is one 

way to address the Department’s goals. 

Regarding accreditation, the 

Department adopted a series of final 

regulations in this area that went into 

effect on July 1, 2020. See 84 FR 58834. 

These regulations made significant 

changes to the Department’s process for 

reviewing and recognizing accrediting 

agencies. Although these regulations 

went into effect four years ago, the 

Department is still in the midst of the 

first cycle of implementing these 

changes across all accrediting agencies. 

That is a result of the five-year 

timeframe on renewal of recognition for 

accrediting agencies, as well as the 

requirements that agencies submit 

applications for renewal two years 

before their deadline for renewal and 

the additional periods institutions have 

for submitting compliance or 

monitoring reports. Allowing a full 5- 

year review cycle under the 2020 

regulations for all accrediting agencies 

provides a greater opportunity to 

demonstrate the effectiveness of the 

existing rules and evaluate outcomes 

before making other changes to the 

process. This also allows Department 

staff to focus on existing reviews instead 

of directing focus away from these key 

activities. Seeing the effects across a full 

cycle will help us better identify any 

needed modifications. 

The Department also has decided to 

terminate the negotiated rulemaking 

process on the third remaining 

regulatory area, cash management. 

While we discussed several regulatory 

changes to this topic, the most 

significant was a proposal addressing 

textbook billing practices. That issue 

generated significant discussion during 

negotiated rulemaking and from public 

commenters, among all the cash 

management proposals. We are 

persuaded by concerns raised during the 

negotiated rulemaking sessions about 

the need to gather additional data, 

assess evolving industry practices, and 

evaluate how policies related to the 

costs of books and supplies as part of 

tuition and fees best serve students and 

their use of financial aid. The current 

provisions are in § 668.164(c) and (m). 

The Department received public 

feedback during the negotiated 

rulemaking process articulating the 

benefits of these policies. The 

Department also acknowledges concerns 

from commenters, including from 

students who have experience 

navigating these products, that these 

policies may not always deliver costs to 

students that are below market rates or 

may not give students a true 

opportunity to opt out. Given this mix 

of input, we believe further research to 

assess the benefits or drawbacks of this 

way of billing for textbooks is needed 

before proceeding with rulemaking. 

Additionally, because textbook billing is 

the most significant issue related to cash 

management addressed by the 

committee, we do not believe exploring 

further regulatory changes in this part of 

the regulations is the best use of limited 

Department resources at this time. Any 

institution that includes the costs of 

books and supplies as part of tuition 

and fees as described in 668.164(c) must 

ensure they have a clearly 

communicated and actionable policy 

under which the student may opt out of 

the method the institution provides for 

students to obtain books and supplies. 

If the Department continues to find that 

institutions are not complying with the 

current requirements in § 668.164(c) and 

(m), we may propose additional 

protective or restrictive measures to 

ensure that students have access to 

books or supplies at below competitive 

market rates. 

For the reasons described above, at 

this time the Secretary exercises his 

discretion to terminate the negotiated 

rulemaking process for issues related to 

accreditation, state authorization, and 

cash management. Were the Department 

to issue a regulation in this area in the 

future, it would be bound by the 

requirements of Section 492(a) and (b) 

of the HEA, 20 U.S.C. 1098a(a) and (b). 

Accessible Format: On request to the 

program contact person listed under FOR

FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT, 

individuals with disabilities can obtain 

this document in an accessible format. 

The Department will provide the 

requestor with an accessible format that 

may include Rich Text Format (RTF) or 

text format (txt), a thumb drive, an MP3 

file, braille, large print, audiotape, 

compact disc, or other accessible format. 

Electronic Access to This Document: 

The official version of this document is 

the document published in the Federal 

Register. You may access the official 

edition of the Federal Register and the 

Code of Federal Regulations at 

www.govinfo.gov. At this site you can 

view this document, as well as all other 

Department documents published in the 

Federal Register, in text or Portable 

Document Format (PDF). To use PDF 

you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader, 

which is available free at the site. 

You may also access Department 

documents published in the Federal 

Register by using the article search 

feature at www.federalregister.gov. 

Specifically, through the advanced 

search feature at this site, you can limit 

your search to documents published by 

the Department. 

Miguel Cardona, 

Secretary of Education. 

[FR Doc. 2024–30919 Filed 12–20–24; 2:00 pm] 

BILLING CODE 4000–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 

34 CFR Parts 30 and 682 

[Docket ID ED–2023–OPE–0123] 

RIN 1840–AD93 

Student Debt Relief for the William D. 

Ford Federal Direct Loan Program 

(Direct Loans), the Federal Family 

Education Loan (FFEL) Program, the 

Federal Perkins Loan (Perkins) 

Program, and the Health Education 

Assistance Loan (HEAL) Program; 

Withdrawal 

AGENCY: Office of Postsecondary 

Education, Department of Education. 

ACTION: Withdrawal of notice of 

proposed rulemaking and termination of 

rulemaking proceeding. 

SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of 

Education (Department) is withdrawing 

a notice of proposed rulemaking 

(NPRM) that, under the Secretary’s 

authority to waive repayment of a loan 

provided by the Higher Education Act of 

1965, as amended (HEA), proposed to 

do the following: amend regulations 

regarding waiver of certain student loan 

debts; provide targeted debt relief as 

part of efforts to address the burden of 

student loan debt; and modify the 

Department’s existing debt collection 

regulations to provide greater specificity 

regarding certain non-exhaustive 

situations in which the Secretary may 

exercise discretion to waive all or part 

of any debts owed to the Department. 

DATES: The notice of proposed 

rulemaking published in the Federal 

Register at 89 FR 27564 on April 17, 

2024, is withdrawn as of December 20, 

2024. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Tamy Abernathy, U.S. Department of 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with PROPOSALS1
104940 Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 247 / Thursday, December 26, 2024 / Proposed Rules 

Education, Office of Postsecondary 

Education, 400 Maryland Avenue SW, 

5th Floor, Washington, DC 20202. 

Telephone: (202) 245–4595. Email: 

NegRegNPRMHelp@ed.gov. 

If you are deaf, hard of hearing, or 

have a speech disability and wish to 

access telecommunications relay 

services, please dial 7–1–1. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background 

On April 17, 2024, the Department 

published an NPRM in the Federal 

Register that, in accordance with the 

Secretary’s authority to waive 

repayment of a loan provided by section 

432(a) of the HEA, would specify the 

Secretary’s discretion to provide debt 

relief targeted to specific circumstances. 

See 89 FR 27564. The proposed 

regulations would modify the 

Department’s existing debt collection 

regulations to provide greater specificity 

regarding the Secretary’s discretion to 

waive Federal student loan debt. It 

would also specify the Secretary’s 

authority to waive all or part of any 

debts owed to the Department based on 

a number of different circumstances, 

such as the following: growth in a 

borrower’s loan balance beyond what 

was owed upon entering repayment; the 

amount of time since a loan first entered 

repayment; whether the borrower is 

otherwise eligible for loan forgiveness or 

discharge under existing authority but 

has not successfully applied; and 

whether a borrower obtained a loan to 

attend an institution or program that 

was subject to secretarial actions to end 

its title IV eligibility, that closed prior 

to such secretarial actions, or was 

associated with closed Gainful 

Employment programs with high debtto-earnings rates or low median 

earnings. 

The Department accepted public 

comments on the NPRM from April 17, 

2024 through May 17, 2024. In response 

to the NPRM, the Department received 

148,567 written comments, and the 

Department has reviewed such 

comments. 

Withdrawal of the Notice of Proposed 

Rulemaking and Termination of the 

Rulemaking Proceeding 

In accordance with the Secretary’s 

authority under section 432(a) of the 

HEA to waive repayment of a loan, the 

Department issued the NPRM to specify 

the Secretary’s discretion to provide 

targeted debt relief to borrowers facing 

specific challenges repaying their 

student loans. The NPRM also proposed 

revisions to update and clarify various 

references and provisions in subparts A, 

C, E, and F of 34 CFR part 30 and 

proposed to amend part 682 by adding 

a new § 682.403. 

The Department believed clarifying 

the circumstances in which the 

Secretary may use the existing and 

longstanding waiver authority under 

section 432(a) of the HEA would better 

inform the public about how the 

Secretary may exercise this waiver 

authority in a consistent and equitable 

manner. Current regulations do not 

describe how the Secretary uses this 

waiver authority. We also believed that 

providing such specificity would allow 

the Department to highlight 

circumstances where we are particularly 

concerned about borrowers’ inability to 

successfully repay their debt in full in 

a reasonable period, where the 

Department anticipated that the costs of 

collection would exceed the amount 

recoverable, and in circumstances that 

would implicate equity and fairness. 

However, upon further consideration 

of the operational challenges in 

implementing the proposals in the 

NPRM, the Secretary withdraws the 

NPRM and terminates the rulemaking 

proceeding. 

In making this decision, we 

considered the Department’s ability to 

implement the proposed rules if they 

were finalized in a form identical or 

largely similar to what was included in 

the NPRM. With the time remaining in 

this administration, the Department is 

focused on several priorities including 

court-ordered settlements and helping 

borrowers manage the final elements of 

the return to repayment following the 

Fall 2024 end of the 12-month on-ramp 

period designed to assist borrowers who 

were unable to make their payments or 

who needed more time to access 

information to determine the right 

repayment plan for their circumstances. 

With the end of the on-ramp period, 

some borrowers may start becoming 

delinquent and start down the path to 

default. Given that many newer 

borrowers are at risk of default, and 

many of these borrowers would not 

have been otherwise affected by the 

proposed rules in the NPRM, along with 

the uncertainty around the 

implementation of the NPRM proposals, 

at this time the Department intends to 

commit its limited operational resources 

to helping at-risk borrowers return to 

repayment successfully. The 

Department has also concluded that 

withdrawing the NPRM will assure 

agency flexibility in re-examining the 

issues and exploring options and 

alternatives with stakeholders in the 

future. For all of these independently 

sufficient reasons, the Department is 

withdrawing this NPRM. 

Importantly, the Department is not 

withdrawing this NPRM and 

terminating this rulemaking proceeding 

based upon a changed view of the 

Secretary’s authority under section 

432(a) of the HEA, or based upon any 

preliminary determination about the 

limitations of such authority. See 

Missouri v. Biden, No. 24–cv–1316, ECF 

No. 57 (granting preliminary 

injunction). Rather, the Department 

continues to believe that the NPRM is 

authorized by the Secretary’s 

longstanding and existing authority 

under the HEA, as explained in the 

NPRM. See 89 FR 27564. 

We do not intend for a final rule to 

be issued on this NPRM. Were the 

Department to issue a regulation in this 

area in the future, it would be bound by 

the requirements of Section 492(a) and 

(b) of the HEA, 20 U.S.C. 1098a(a) and 

(b). 

Accessible Format: On request to the 

program contact person listed under FOR

FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT, 

individuals with disabilities can obtain 

this document in an accessible format. 

The Department will provide the 

requestor with an accessible format that 

may include Rich Text Format (RTF) or 

text format (txt), a thumb drive, an MP3, 

braille, large print, audiotape, compact 

disc, or other accessible format. 

Electronic Access to This Document: 

The official version of this document is 

the document published in the Federal 

Register. You may access the official 

edition of the Federal Register and the 

Code of Federal Regulations at 

www.govinfo.gov. At this site you can 

view this document, as well as all other 

Department documents published in the 

Federal Register, in text or Portable 

Document Format (PDF). To use PDF, 

you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader, 

which is available free at the site. 

You may also access Department 

documents published in the Federal 

Register by using the article search 

feature at www.Federalregister.gov. 

Specifically, through the advanced 

search feature at this site, you can limit 

your search to documents published by 

the Department. 

Miguel Cardona, 

Secretary of Education. 

[FR Doc. 2024–30606 Filed 12–20–24; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4000–01–P 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with PROPOSALS1